You have less to worry about regarding your kids’ safety on Instagram! The platform has launched some features that let parents have control over their children’s Instagram activities. In this article, we’re going to introduce Instagram Sensitive Content and Family Center to help you keep an eye on your children when using Instagram.

Threats of Instagram for Children

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media accounts, especially among youngsters. Around 10 percent of Instagram users are less than 17 years old. Despite all the interesting features of the platform, it has it’s dangers. This may be improving with the roll out of Instagram’s teen accounts.

Let’s list the threats that may harm your children on Instagram:

Cyberbullying

Although Instagram has no tolerance for bullies, there are still accounts that do cyber bullying. Kids are the most vulnerable group when it comes to cyber bullies.

Hate speech

Many accounts spread hate toward religions or races and you need to prevent your children from following these accounts.

Personal information release

Sometimes kids don’t know that they’re releasing personal information during their Instagram activities.

Sexual seduction

Unfortunately, many accounts on Instagram try to seduce your kids to have a relationship with them. Remember that there are many complaints about Instagram influencers in this regard.

Inappropriate content

Instagram’s limit on pornographic content is not enough and there is still lots of inappropriate content for kids and teens.

Instagram Sensitive Content Control

Instagram’s terms of policy don’t allow any content that might be harmful to people. For example, hate speech, cyberbullying, or similar content are categorized as sensitive content on Instagram. Also, Instagram has launched another feature, called Sensitive Content Control, that allows you to put more filters on Instagram content.

This is great news for parents because many Instagram posts and stories are not banned by Instagram, but they’re inappropriate for kids.

So you can easily let your kids know that they’re allowed to use Instagram as long as you limit content that is upsetting or offensive.

Here is how you can use Instagram Sensitive Content Control:

• Open the Instagram app on your kid’s phone.
• Go to his/her profile.
• Tap the three-line icon (a.k.a hamburger.) You can see it at the top right.
• Choose Settings and Privacy.
• Under “What you see,” choose “Sensitive content.”
• Choose a suitable option from the three options available;

1. More
2. Standard
3. Less

The last option is suitable for kids because it puts the most restricted filter on the content they can see on Instagram.

Instagram Family Center: Parental Supervision

Although the Sensitive content feature on Instagram is helpful, it won’t ensure your kid’s safety. Fortunately, there is another feature on the platform that lets you have more control over your kid.

Instagram Family Center provides supervision features to allow you to have an extra pair of eyes on your children’s IG activities.

It lets you track the time they use Instagram and reduce their screen time. Also, you can be notified of their following and prevent them from following suspicious accounts.

To do that, follow the guide below:

1. Open your own Instagram account
2. Go to your profile
3. Tap the hamburger icon
4. Choose Settings and privacy
5. Scroll down and choose Supervision under “For families”

Family Center appears. Now, you have to invite your kid:

1. Tap “Invite your teen
2. Choose one of the options: “Find your teen on Instagram” or “Send your teen a link”
3. Now, your kid has to accept the invitation.

When he accepts the invitation, you’ll gain access to his/her account.

Other Instagram Safety Tips for Parents

Here are some extra tips for parents to make sure about their kids’ safety on Instagram:

Screen time limit

Try to define a daily time limit so that they avoid spending too much time on the platform. Remember that social media can cause damage to their health and also their educational performance.

Check their followers

You need to know who they’re following or who has followed them. This way, you can spot suspicious accounts and take suitable measures.

Check their account’s Settings

You need to check their accounts so that they don’t change sensitive content or other settings.

Teach them how to set a powerful password

You need to know that Instagram accounts can easily be hacked. So you have to teach your kids to set strong passwords to save their Instagram profiles from hackers.

Keep their accounts Private

As you know, all users can see the content of public accounts. So you have to switch your kid’s account into a private one to avoid releasing personal information.

Install third-party parental control apps if needed

If you think that your teen doesn’t care about your warnings, you can install a third-party parental control app to control their Instagram activities. Using these apps, you can keep track of all their activities and even record their IG calls. Some of these apps let you remotely block the app on their cell phones. Tracking suspicious keywords on their account is also a great service these apps offer.

Final Words

Many children ask their parents to let them have an account on Instagram. Unfortunately, some of them watch inappropriate pictures and videos on Instagram or use the platform for sexting. So the wisest course of action is to have parental control over their activities on Instagram. Threads is another app under the umbrella of Instagram to be aware of.  With any social media app, kids need to accept your supervision invitation so that you can see their activities. If you see that your teen resists, you should work to agree on monitoring tools that restrict activities.

Plagiarism, the act of using someone else’s work or ideas without proper attribution, poses a significant threat to academic integrity. The detrimental consequences of similarity extend beyond tarnished reputations; they undermine the very essence of intellectual growth and fairness in education.

Academic honesty cultivates critical thinking, originality, and a genuine understanding of the subject matter. It promotes ethical behavior, instills a sense of responsibility, and prepares students for a future where integrity and authenticity are valued.

Plagiarism checkers are powerful tools that aid in the detection and prevention of similarity in content by comparing submitted work against an extensive database of existing sources.

We will discuss today, how similarity index checkers empower students to review their work, ensure originality, and the role of plagiarized content checkers in fostering academic honesty among students.

Role of Plagiarism Checkers in Fostering Academic Honesty

• Plagiarism Detectors such as plagiarismchecker.ai enables efficient and objective detection of stolen content, helping to maintain the integrity of academic work and holding students accountable for their originality.

• By promoting a culture of originality and proper citation practices, stolen content detectors emphasize the importance of academic honesty and discourage unethical behavior.

• Plagiarized content detectors raise awareness among students about the seriousness of higher similarity index, educating them on the ethical and academic implications of improper use of sources.

• These tools encourage students to develop their research and critical thinking skills, as they learn to properly attribute and synthesize information from various sources in their unique way.

Understanding Plagiarism & Its Different Forms

Plagiarism is the act of using published work, ideas, or intellectual property without giving proper credit or acknowledgment. It encompasses various forms, including:

Verbatim Plagiarism

This happens when one directly copies and pastes another person’s work without attribution. For example:

Original Source: “The Earth’s atmosphere is composed of various gases, including nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other elements.”

Plagiarized Version: “The Earth’s atmosphere is made up of different gases, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other elements.”

Paraphrasing

It involves rephrasing other’s ideas without proper citation, as exampled below:

Original Source: “According to a recent study, regular exercise has numerous benefits for physical and mental health.”

Plagiarized Version: “A recent investigation revealed that routine physical activity offers multiple advantages for both physical and mental well-being.”

Self-Plagiarism

This occurs when an individual presents their own previously published work as new or original. For example:

Original Source: “The results showed that regular meditation practice has a positive impact on stress reduction and overall psychological well-being.”

Plagiarized Version: “In this research, I discovered that incorporating regular meditation into one’s routine can effectively alleviate stress and improve overall mental health.”

Each form of plagiarism undermines the principles of academic integrity and the importance of originality in scholarly pursuits.

Consequences of Plagiarism on Academic Progress & Integrity

Damage to personal and academic reputation:

Stolen content can tarnish the reputation of the individual involved, affecting their credibility as a scholar and potentially impacting future academic and professional opportunities.

Academic penalties:

Institutions take plagiarized content efforts seriously and impose disciplinary actions, ranging from failing grades on assignments or courses to more severe consequences such as academic probation, suspension, or even expulsion. These penalties serve as deterrents and reinforce the importance of upholding academic integrity.

Undermining the value of education:

Similar content in academic writing undermines the integrity of the educational system. It diminishes the value of genuine learning and erodes trust and fairness within the academic community.

Stifling personal growth and development:

Stolen content deprives students of the opportunity to develop essential skills such as critical thinking, research, and effective writing. It hinders their intellectual growth and diminishes the value of their academic achievements.

Devaluing the work of others:

Plagiarized content not only harms the plagiarist but also disrespects the original authors and their intellectual contributions. It disregards their efforts and diminishes the recognition they deserve for their work.

Undercutting the advancement of knowledge:

The stolen content of others impedes the progress of knowledge by promoting the circulation of unoriginal ideas. It hampers innovation, stifles creativity, and prevents the emergence of new insights and discoveries.

Impact on educational institutions:

The percentage of similarity index in a document reflects poorly on educational institutions, eroding their reputation and credibility. It undermines their mission to uphold rigorous academic standards and the pursuit of knowledge with integrity.

Legal and ethical implications:

In some cases, it can lead to legal consequences, especially if it involves copyright infringement. It raises ethical concerns regarding intellectual property rights and the fair attribution of ideas.

Plagiarism Checkers Online for Students

A plagiarism checker is an efficient and accurate similarity index checker tool available online. It is paid and accepts up to 10,000 words per attempt for checking plagiarism and features 25+ languages.

The user will get the %age of original and plagiarized content along with the sources form where the content was taken by clicking on the sentence to be checked. Moreover, you can get the plagiarism report in the form of PDF document by clicking on “Get Report” button.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it is concluded that “fostering academic honesty among students is vital for maintaining the integrity and credibility of the educational system.”

Plagiarism checkers play a significant role in promoting academic integrity by efficiently detecting instances of similarity in content, encouraging a culture of originality and proper citation practices, raising awareness about stolen content, and nurturing students’ research and critical thinking skills.

It is essential to recognize the value of these tools and continue their use and development to address the evolving challenges of academic dishonesty. However, adopting a holistic approach that encompasses education, prevention, and detection methods is equally important.

By combining efforts in educating students, implementing proactive measures, and utilizing plagiarism checkers, we can cultivate a community committed to academic honesty, integrity, and the pursuit of knowledge.

When discussing the use of spy apps on a child’s phone, a difference of opinions has a lot to do with parenting styles and philosophy of how to protect kids online.  While parents may agree with the use of parental controls to monitor a child’s activity, a spy app implies that parents will monitor (spy) on their child without their knowledge to see what they are up to.

Many parents feel this sets up the parent-child relationship to be a distrustful one and would prefer parental controls are used with the child’s full knowledge.  In doing so, the idea is that it can be a way to teach children how to properly manage the internet throughout the various stages of their life, but with proper safeguards in place.

It is OK to Use Spy Apps on a Child’s Phone?

Firstly, it must be stated that Safe Search Kids only endorses apps that do not use the word “spy” in their name or marketing.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  As well, we do not endorse any app that is by design created to spy on people without their knowledge, even parents who want to use them to monitor their children.

Spy apps are often targeted at adults to enable to them to spy on spouses or other adults.  The same apps may also be marketed as parental controls.  Even with a child’s full knowledge, the use of the word “spy” can be problematic.  It implies to children that “we need to spy on you because you can’t be depended on to do what is right”, as opposed to “the internet is a dangerous place and even with good intentions you may be exposed to harmful content online without guidance and monitoring”.

There is no blanket answer or solution to protecting kids on the internet while teaching them responsible digital habits.  From preschool to elementary school ages, to the tween years, early and late teens, the details of explicit dangers online are dependant on a child’s maturity.

Potential Problems in the Use of Spy Apps on Phones

Here are some issues that we believe set up ‘a parents well intentions’ for possible failure down the road.  The age of the child most certainly determines how any parent would deal with their children’s use of a smartphone or tablet.  If your child is very young, they are not be old enough to understand a discussion about explicit material and that you are monitoring their online activity.

As  children grow older, the more knowledge and freedom they will be given. A social media app that was not appropriate two years earlier may be just fine now.  However, monitoring a child’s usage on any app is still needed.  There is no set age as to when parents should let their kids know about parental controls on their devices, but it will more than likely be when the child is old enough to know about what you wish to protect them from.  This is when installing a spy app without their knowledge may backfire, for a variety of reasons.

Here are three areas that parents will need to balance to equip their children for responsible use of the internet as they grow to become adults.  Privacy, trust, and safety.

Privacy

Spying on a tween or teen’s activity without their knowledge invades their privacy. Even if this may be legal as a parent, the question is this; Does it model a lack of respect for the child that could cause them to rebel down the road.  With some kids, the more parents pry, the more secretive they will become.

Trust

Other parents believe that entrusting a child to do the right thing empowers them to make right choices on their own.  Should a parent devalue this trust by trying to secretly spy on activity and “catch them in the act” while they are doing something wrong.  Could this end up doing more harm than good as kids grow in responsible behavior?

Safety

How does a parent balance all of these issues with the need for safety.  Virtually all parents would agree that children should not have absolute freedom online.  There are pitfalls even if kids are eager to please their parents and stay safe.  There is also peer pressure to follow the crowd despite best intentions.  As well, children are not always home and even at a friend house, parents may have different standards.

Are Spy Apps different than Parental Control Apps?

The features on spy apps vary, as do parental controls apps. Some apps focus more on knowing the location of another person, whether adult or child.  They may have text and call monitoring abilities but not do a good job of blocking harmful websites on the web.

Regardless of the app used, you’re going to want to ensure you have all the main features of a parental control app.   Specific options can vary between different apps, but here are some common ones:

Content Filtering

Web filtering capabilities to block access to inappropriate websites or content categories, such as adult content, violence, and gambling. Protecting your family by ensuring your child is not downloading pirated content, whether intentionally or accidentally.

App Monitoring and Blocking

Monitoring usage of messenger apps, browsers, including conversations, comments, and friend connections.  Ensure you control what apps can be downloaded in the first place.

Time Management

The ability to restrict internet access according to specific times of day, such as overnight hours. Daily time limits for playing games or time spent gaming or on social media to encourage healthy habits.

Social Media Monitoring

Monitoring features for popular social media platforms, allowing parents to keep track of their child’s social media activities, view messages, and receive alerts for potentially risky behavior.

Location Tracking

GPS tracking to help parents keep tabs on their child’s whereabouts to ensure their safety. This feature can provide real-time location information or location history. Receive alerts when children leave set zones, such as home, school, or a friend’s house.

Remote Device Control

Parental control apps may allow parents to remotely manage and control their child’s device, including options like app installation, app blocking, or device locking.

Safe Search

Enforce safe search settings on search engines so that your can make sure sensually graphic or inappropriate content is removed from search results. Porn blocking is standard and an absolute must for any age.

Call and Text Monitoring

Ability to monitor incoming and outgoing calls and text messages, providing parents with visibility into their child’s communication. This easier to do on Android, which is an open-source platform.  iPhones are more restrictive in allowing parental controls to monitor.

Are Spy Apps Legal?

The legality of installing spy apps on a person’s phone without their knowledge can vary depending on the jurisdiction and the specific circumstances involved. In many places, it is generally considered illegal to install spyware or monitoring apps on someone’s phone without their consent.

Spying on someone’s phone without their knowledge typically infringes upon their privacy rights. Laws regarding privacy and electronic communications vary by country and can include regulations such as wiretapping laws or computer crime laws. In many jurisdictions, unauthorized access to someone’s device, interception of their communications, or invasion of their privacy can be considered illegal activities.

However, it’s important to note that laws can differ significantly from one jurisdiction to another, and the interpretation and enforcement of these laws can vary as well. It’s advisable to consult the laws specific to your country or seek legal advice for a more accurate and up-to-date understanding of the legal implications surrounding spy apps and privacy concerns.

The Use of Parental Controls or Spy Apps by Parents on a Child’s Device

The legality of a parent monitoring their child’s phone without their knowledge using a spy app or parental control app can also vary depending on the jurisdiction and specific circumstances. In many places, parents have the legal authority to monitor and supervise their minor children’s activities, including their digital activities.

However, even in cases where parents have the legal right to monitor their child’s phone, it is recommended to communicate trust and respect regarding parental controls. Communicate the need for your involvement as a parent. Explain the reasons why desire to restrict and monitor online activity can help build trust and maintain a healthy parent-child relationship.

Parents can familiarize themselves with the laws and regulations of specific jurisdictions regarding child privacy rights. Consultation with legal professionals or resources in your country can provide you with more accurate and up-to-date information on the topic.

To Spy to Not to Spy – Wrapping Things Up

Legality has nothing to do with the name of an app. It’s whether the activity of spying of a person or even basic monitoring is acceptable. As we’ve explored, for parents, the age of a child will also factor into their decision regarding how much to inform their kids about the monitoring of their devices.

Still, there are power in words when having conversations with each family member, even when motivated by love and expressing to kids the importance of shielding their young minds from harmful content. Beyond the obvious issues of online predators and explicit websites, parental monitoring can also help parents be proactive at the first sign of cyberbullying or dealing with excessive use of social media and video games.

Protecting children both psychologically and physically is the goal, while providing age-appropriate information about potential risks and threats online.  The right balance is an effective way to equip children for responsible internet usage throughout all the stages of their childhood years.

One size can never fit “all”.   Kids have varied personalities and different levels of intellectual abilities.  Challenges for parents are only growing as technology and world continues to progress at a rapid space. Conversations in a time and space where children feel safe and listened to will always be the best first step to navigating how kids interact online.

Playing is vital for children, which can be in the form of physical games or even online. What is essential is that children play appropriate games for their age. Currently, many children prefer online games to play with their friends closely, so it is important to do online activities that are appropriate for their age so that they can enjoy the benefits of playing.

We all know that when children play online games, we should pay attention to the safety of the game space. Still, another critical issue is that children’s online activities also affect their development.

It is good to know that online activities suitable for children’s age will make children have fun, their creativity will flourish, their imagination will intensify, and their skills and abilities will grow.

Online games and activities have different age groups, so parents can prepare matches suitable for their child’s age and provide them to their children.

So far, we have found that online activities suitable for children’s age have important effects on children’s growth and creativity.

In this article, we discuss the importance of online activities appropriate to children’s age on their development and examine the most important reasons.

The Benefits of Age-Appropriate Online Activities for Children’s Growth

In this section, we examine some of the most important reasons for the importance of age-appropriate online activities for children.

●     Health and Well Being

When choosing online activities for your children, ensure they are suitable for their age because online activities significantly impact their health.

If the activities you choose are for a group older than your child’s age, they may contain heartbreaking scenes unsuitable for the child’s age and therefore have a destructive and negative effect on your child’s health.

But providing an online activity suitable for the child’s age will positively affect the child’s healthy development.

●     Increase Children’s Cognitive Skills

Online games and activities can affect their cognitive skills and develop these skills. Therefore, online activities such as online games are not always harmful, and if they are suitable for the age of children, they can help their development.

Research has shown that online activities affect the training and development of children’s cognitive skills, such as problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, critical thinking, creativity, and memory.

●     Fix Children’s Mood

Parents think that all online activities are harmful to children and cause anger and anxiety, which is undeniable. Still, the most important reason for such an incident is that children do activities online, which is unsuitable for their age.

If you, as a parent, provide your children with age-appropriate online activities, these online games can set the children’s mood, relax, enjoy spending time online, and even decrease their anxiety and anger.

●     Improve Their Social Skills

Online activities can positively affect children’s social skills and help them learn critical social skills from their peers.

When you choose online activities for your children that are suitable for their age, they will be able to connect with children of the same age, and in this way, they can strengthen their social skills in the childhood environment.

This work even strengthens their creativity, and in this way, they can learn new ways to communicate with others.

●     Hand and Eye Coordination

An interesting issue that some parents may not pay attention to is that online activities can create coordination between children’s hands and eyes; when children are busy doing online activities, they mainly use their hands and eyes to follow the objects on the screen during the game, and they have to press buttons with their hands to advance the game.

Such activities strengthen children’s physical and mental skills and increase hand-eye coordination and reaction.

●     Improve Their Language Skills

Online activities strengthen children’s language skills. When children do online activities, their abilities, including language skills, are maintained because they gradually learn how to advance the game’s stages.

In addition, when your children do online activities such as watching educational videos at a young age, they can speak faster and make complete sentences. In this way, their verbal skills are also developed.

As a result, they learn what buttons to press and how to go through the steps. For example, they understand what the “Enter” button, “Skip” button, etc. is and how it is written, and in this way, they learn new words and strengthen their language skills.

●     They Receive More Information

Another reason for the importance of online activities suitable for children’s age is that it gives children access to a source of different information, and it is helpful if parents monitor these sources of information.

Children learn things that are available to them, for example, they learn something from parents and school, but if parents provide them with age-appropriate online activities, they can access different information and learn new skills.

●     Promote Teamwork Skills

Online group activities suitable for your child’s age will strengthen your child’s teamwork skills.

Such online activities make children assume different roles and responsibilities while playing and try to do it in the best way, enabling them to cooperate with others to reach a specific goal. In this way, your children are happy and learn essential skills.

●     Improve Multi-Tasking Abilities

Some online activities in which children have to do several tasks at the same time are beneficial because, in this way, it strengthens children’s different skills and improves their multitasking ability.

Multitasking helps your children a lot; this ability is useful for them in adulthood and allows them to have better jobs than their peers.

●     It Brings More Fun and Happiness

You may think that only the games and activities in the playground entertain your children and they are only happy in this way.

This idea is wrong, many online activities are fun for children, and they are happy when they are engaged in such activities and games; most importantly, these activities are designed for different ages, which allows parents to use what is suitable for their child’s age.

●     Behavioral Influence

Doing age-appropriate online activities for children has many benefits; one of them is that by doing these activities, children learn how to behave according to their age.

In fact, these activities teach them age-appropriate behavior patterns and thus affect your child’s behavior, so the activities you choose for your child must be appropriate for their age.

Conclusion

Remember that the digital world and online activities have become almost ubiquitous, and most parents cannot spend much time playing with their children, so online activities help parents a lot in addition to their benefits on children’s development.

But it should be noted that children’s use of technology and online activities and games should be under parental supervision and have limitations.

In this article, we have comprehensively discussed online activities suitable for children’s age and their importance for children’s development.

We have provided you with the most vital reasons for the importance of online activities, such as online games, on children’s development so that you can use age-appropriate online activities for your children’s development.